Phaedra Cook is eating her way through Houston and counting down her 100 favorite dishes of 2015. It's a collection of personal favorites that is also indicative of Houston dining. It's a scene where a vast range of dishes coexist: highbrow and lowbrow; local and international; cheap and expensive; modern cuisine and beloved tenets — and everything in between.

Who ever thought carrots would make a great pizza topping? Well, apparently Weights + Measures chef Richard Kaplan did. Sweet orange carrots, sliced so thin as to be translucent, firm up and char a bit on the edges in the oven, which intensifies and deepens the flavor.

Indeed, this is far from an ordinary pizza, freed almost entirely from traditional Italian moors. It uses sauce soubise, an onion Béchamel. The cheese is an off-the-beaten-path choice, too. Rather than turning to traditional mozzarella cheese, they use Veldhuizen Redneck Cheddar.

Bright red rounds of Fresno chiles lend some brilliant color and dashes of pleasant heat while picked cilantro leaves speckle the top with lively dashes of green.

The crowning touch is dukka, an Egyptian seasoning mix that incorporates sesame seeds, ground nuts, coriander and cumin. It not only delivers a flavor punch but adds delicate texture.

Perhaps the most important aspect, though, is the crust. Chewy, elastic and tender all as the same time, it exemplifies the benefit of having Slow Dough bakery in-house. It’s a worthy foundation for such a creative combination of flavors.